His name was Glen Bell, and he opened the first Taco Bell restaurant back in 1962 in Downey, California. Before Taco Bell, he originally owned and operated a hamburger stand called Bell’s Hamburgers in California, built in 1948 on the border of San Bernardino and the city of Colton. Glen opened his first taco stand, Taco Tia in 1954, selling tacos for nineteen cents ($1.66 value today).